My movie week with Mike Shaw

» Cleopatra, directed by Ang Lee, and starring Angelina Jolie. Doesn’t that sounds like a perfect combination? A film based on Stacy Schiff’s book Cleopatra: A Life has been in the works since 2006, with various directors coming and going, but now the project has caught the eye of Life of Pi’s Ang Lee, who has expressed a desire to tackle the movie, with Angelina Jolie as his leading lady.

Lee said: “It just feels right to me after all the other types of films I’ve done. What does it have in common with any of them? They’re all totally different! That’s what makes this perfect.”

Some critics are already furious about this, saying that Cleopatra should be left well alone as the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton version cannot be bettered, but given the magic Ang Lee was able to produce from the ‘unfilmable’ Life of Pi, I think it’s only right to let him have a go.

» After generating more rumbling than an approaching diplodocus, Universal has finally confirmed that Jurassic Park 4 is on the way and will arrive next year.

The new rumours began at Comic-Con 2011 when Steven Spielberg mentioned that he had been working on ideas with an unnamed writer, but then last June it was revealed that Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver were preparing a script.

So far there has been no word on the director, and even though Spielberg has said a few times that he’s going to get someone else to do the film, his schedule has just been blown wide open (see below). Plot-wise, the film is still a mystery (however I have it on good authority that dinosaurs will be involved) but it will hit screens in June 2014. On August 30, a 3D version of the first Jurassic Park hits cinemas, ready to terrify children all over again.

» Though it was supposed to start shooting this year, Steven Spielberg has put the brakes on his massive sci-fi project, Robopocalypse.

With Anne Hathaway and Chris (Thor) Hemsworth lined up as the leads, the director has decided that everything needs more work before he can begin shooting. A spokesman said: “[The film is] too important and the script is not ready, and it’s too expensive to produce. It’s back to the drawing board to see what is possible.”

At the moment the film is on ‘indefinite hold’, although that is estimated to be between six and eight months. That’s more thanenough time to film a dinosaur movie!

» Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning to play Conan, and he wants everyone to know about it. The erstwhile Terminator, governor of California and kindergarten teacher, first played the role more than 30 years ago in 1982’s Conan The Barbarian, and he’s delighted he’s going to be chopping off heads again in The Legend of Conan.

While promoting his latest movie The Last Stand, Arnie explained how the 2011 Conan reboot sucked, and that Universal now wants to produce a serious action movie with a top director and top writers.

He said: “[Universal] finally came forward and said, ‘You’re absolutely right. The previous regime has missed the boat here. We want to pick it up. We’re going to buy the rights and we’re going to be serious about it and make a quality film with an A-director and with A-writers and so on. And we want you to participate in this. We want you to star and you to play Conan. We’re going to take a story where Conan is at that age so it’s totally believable and you’re not looking like a 30-year old action guy’.’”

Well. If there’s one thing Arnie can definitely play, it’s a 65-year-old man. Filming is set to begin at the end of this year.